Dish Detergent and Frugal Living

I got a sample of Dawn dish detergent awhile back but I hadn't used it yet - guess I was waiting for hard times or trying a new method of being frugal. Just for fun, I tried to see how long I could make it last. Wow.

I've washed dishes three times with it now and there looks to be at least enough for twice more, maybe three times. That's from a "one use" sample. How much do they want us to waste, anyway??

I wash dishes by hand in a large stainless steel bowl that's still smaller than a standard dishpan (if there is such a thing), so it doesn't take as much dish detergent as a sink full of water would. Even with a full sink of water and detergent, it wouldn't take the whole sample's worth.

So, who's the odd one out? The frugal soul who refuses to waste even a freebie, or the generous soul who swishes it downstream without a second thought?

Use Your Imagination, Scene One: Hungry Spring

When we daydream, we allow our minds the freedom to solve problems in unusual ways. That imagination is essential to learning new and better ways for our real lives. On the premise that the human mind is an extraordinary thing when given a chance, I daydreamed up three different scenes in which we must be ultra frugal to learn to meet real needs. We can then use that frugal creativity in our real lives.

Besides all of that, it's fun to try.

Let your frugal imagination out of the box and see what you can come up with in the following scenarios. In all scenes, in your imagination you're alone with no children or family. (It's temporary!) You only have to fend for yourself and you only have yourself to rely on. You will have to be frugal and creative to survive.

Ready? Pay attention to all of the details.

Scene One: Hungry Spring

It's early spring and you have a home with all the amenities: Hot and cold running water, a stove to cook on, electricity, and a good bed to sleep in. You have a car with a full tank of gas. You're comfortable. There's only one problem: You have NO food, not even a smidgen of salt. Nothing edible, nothing to drink except water. Your mission: feed yourself for four weeks on fifty dollars.

The first week, you'll have twenty dollars to stock up, then you'll receive ten dollars for each of the remaining three weeks. Anything goes, whether it's unique to your situation or common to everyone, but please be honest about what you could and would do. You can be as frugal as you like, even if it seems drastic, as long as it's something you're really able and willing to do.

Write down what you buy or obtain in other ways, then write down your menus for each day. Don't forget to think about things such as needing oil or shortening to fry eggs, etc. Think about how you would go about making each dish or meal and write down methods if it makes sense to do so.

I realize that ten dollars will go farther in some places than others, but there's no way to adjust it. Considering that some of you will have had more experience or live in an area where there is more opportunity, hopefully it will even out somewhat.

Let us know what you come up with!

Next week: Extreme creativity is required for a little foray into the city.

Did you see this??

I have three other blogs, none of them well kept up, I'm afraid, but I'd like to introduce you to them if you're not familiar with them.

The first was started as a way to throw up some quick ideas in between "real" blog posts. It kind of took on a life of its own. It's called Extremely Frugal 
It's chock full of frugal tidbits that some even call wierd.

Another one is Basic Food Saving Ideas which I started to separate only the food and recipe posts. Not a good idea, I decided, since it took so much away from this one. Nevertheless, it's still there and I still post to it now and then.

The last one is a special one and one that will grow in time, with no stress for me. It's called As I Grow in God and that's pretty much what it is. Now and then I get an urge to share what God is showing me.

There's another one, but I couldn't keep up with it at all because I couldn't separate the focus of the articles from the other blogs. It's called Country Living in a City Home. I love it and I would like to expand it but most of what I do and write about can be covered with the other blogs.

So there you have it. Let me know what you think, please.

Ten Ways to a Frugal New Year

Start the new year off on the right foot! Now's the time to review, revise, revisit and rework, whether it's yourself or your financial picture. Get going on the track that will put you in more frugal (read: prosperous) condition for this year and the year after and the year after...

Review all of your insurance
Home owner's insurance,  vehicle insurance, health insurance, life insurance, whatever you have. The beginning of the year is a perfect time to be sure you're paying the least amount possible for the amount of coverage you need. Raise your deductible if you can, revamp values, revisit needs. Go over everything first by yourself,

'Way Back When...

Something I thought you might be interested in, from the 'Way Back Machine, January 31, 2004

http://web.archive.org/web/20040131115558/http://frugalliving.about.com/

Teach Others to Yearn For What You Have

"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."
- Antoine St Exupery 

There is wisdom in this quote. We can put it to good frugal use if we think just a little bit. Is there someone you know who could benefit from learning to save money or controlling expenses? Don't try to teach them how to do it. Instead, teach them to want to be debt free or to be able to live in comfort and even with some excitement while staying within their income. 

In other words, don't talk so much about what it takes to do it. Talk about what it's like after you've done it. Did you wait a year while saving money to take the vacation of a lifetime? Don't harp on that. Instead, tell them how nice it was to not have to worry about paying it all off when you got home. Talk about how relaxed you were for weeks afterward. Spark in them the desire to do the same; make them envious of your lifestyle. 

And if they call it good fortune or good luck, then you can tell them how you make your own good luck! 

   

Living the Frugal Life: Up From the Ashes

The story goes that the Phoenix, or fire bird, lives many years, then builds a nest and goes up in ashes. What is left is an egg which produces a new phoenix - or a reborn phoenix, if you will, since it's from the ashes of the former.

I'm not sure I had to say all of that, but I do have to say a few things about living the frugal life that haven't been said before and since I already have this blog...well, why start over again?

Living the frugal life style is more likely to allow people to make choices that others cannot make. Many people still think that living a frugal life style is only done by those who don't have much money. While that is true of some of us, others do have plenty of money but they still know how to control it and make it do what they want it to do.

For those people, this economy can be very good. Savings made in more affluent times can be used to buy houses at low cost, to buy goods at distress sales and to pick up automobiles and other items at low prices.

But if you don't have money sitting around in savings accounts? It can still be good. Lower income all over means lower prices, at least on the second hand market. This is because there is a glut of items that were purchased during good times and now cannot be paid for.

Home foreclosures, vehicle auctions and consignment shops all offer bargains. Why would you pay full price for anything when you don't have to?

What daily expenses can you cut?

In the last Frugal Living post, I talked about tracking your expenses and cutting 75% from your weekly expenditures. I know that saying, "do it" without giving you a clue as to how to go about it can leave you wandering around in the dark, so this time, I'm going to tackle how to cut some of those small expenses.

Frugal living doesn't mean that you have to go without things, but it does mean that you have to become creative and actively find ways to obtain the things you want without spending money, or at least as much money as you have been.

Here are some examples to get you going, but remember that this frugal living adventure is yours, so these are only examples:

• Instead of buying a cup of coffee on your way to work, make it at home and take it in a insulated cup. Instead of buying coffee from a vending machine later in the day, take some of the same coffee in a thermos.

• Instead of going out for lunch, bring your own. If your coworkers think you're nuts, tell them you're on a special diet.

• Instead of buying the newspaper on your way home each evening, get a subscription and have it delivered for less.

• Instead of shopping for office wear at the mall, check out some thrift stores. You might be surprised at what you find there. Go with an open mind and open eyes.

• Instead of paying extra for someone to watch the kids when you have to work late, see if you can find someone to swap babysitting with. You can watch their kids and they can watch yours.

• Instead of picking up fast food on your way home, or ordering pizza when you get home because you're too tired or stressed to cook, buy some convenience foods at the grocery store when you shop and save them for times like this. Frozen pizza and other dinners may be more expensive that cooking from scratch, but they're usually cheaper than eating out.

Only some of these may apply to you or maybe none of them do. The idea is to think hard about how you can substitute or get the item differently to save money. If you embrace living frugally, you will be able to come up with ideas that fit your situation.

Frugal living: where to start?

I get questions about frugal living and many of them are the same, so I'm going to try to answer a few of them in the next few posts. The most frequently asked question about frugal living is simply, "Where do I start?"

You start where you are. Overly simplistic? Maybe, but let me explain.

Some people ask their question in the form of a wish list. "I want to get out of debt and buy a house. Where do I start?"

Others say, "I just want to quit living paycheck to paycheck. Is that even possible? I don't make much money so what can I do?" 


Both of these people need t start where they are, and neither of them know where they are, so that's the first step. Find out where you are. Frugal living isn't about magic or wishful thinking. It's about getting a grasp on your life. It's about controlling your money instead of letting it control you.

Anyway, if you're not sure where you are, how can you get away from it? So start here:

Track your expenses every day for at least a week. All of them, from a cup of coffee to the mortgage payment. Don't overlook anything because it's a small amount. Every penny is important for this.

Look over your expenses. Sometimes this is all that's needed to open your eyes to where you are wasting money. If not, separate them into categories, like bills that need to be paid, impulse purchases, things bought from guilt (office party, gift for someone you've ignored, etc,). Make your own categories as you sort through your records.

Now comes the fun part. Pretend that you had access to only 75% of the money that you spent during that week. What would you have eliminated? This will give you a look at the things that are unnecessary expenses.

Now you know where you are and you can get to work getting to where you want to be. Cut out the unnecessary expenses and pay off bills with it or put it in a savings account.

The relativity of an apple harvest

It's almost ready! My one lonely apple... not bad for a first harvest, though. My other little apple tree died so my daughter got me another one for Mother's Day this year. It was already blooming and formed five little apples which fell off, one by one, until this one was left.

My apple harvest

I've been watching it all summer. How good it will taste! Shall I invite my daughter to share it? Should I eat half the first day and half the second? When will I know it's the perfect time to pick it? Will a squirrel get it before I do? Does it have a worm in it?

Isn't it strange how important things become when the amount is limited?

I could go to the store and buy as many apples as I wanted, but none of them would taste as good as this one will.

It's the same with "things." Kids who have so many toys that none of them are truly appreciated. People who have so many clothes that none of them are important. Houses with so many rooms and so many square feet, cars with so many bells and whistles. None of it has as much value as two toys will have to a child who has none other; an extra set of clothes to the man or woman who has nothing else to wear; a built on leanto to a family that lives in a two room home, a car that runs to a person who has walked to work for the last year.

That's what relative is. Do you have enough? Do you have too much?

The Simplest Way to Save

I keep getting asked, over and over, what is the single best frugal tactic. Considering so many different lifestyles and needs, there are countless ways to save money and one of them may be the best for you while it won't work at all for someone else.

BUT... since when did I let impossibilities stop me?

Here's what I think is the absolute best tactic ever: Do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Don't go shopping. Don't go anywhere. Don't turn on the TV or snack or do anything to run up your water bill.

In other words, don't consume anything.

I don't mean that you should sit staring out into space with an empty tummy and an empty head. Have a meal, but make it simple and inexpensive. Borrow a book from the library and read. Go outside and watch the birds, the traffic... watch the grass grow. Just don't consume anything that costs money.

Try it. You might actually like it.

What You Don't Know...

...can hurt you.

I was talking to a young friend awhile back who was getting WIC supplements for her children. She mentioned that they gave her a lot of canned evaporated milk.

"The only way I know how to use it is to make fudge!"

Oh, my. After enlightening her as to the real identity of canned milk (it's milk), I began to wonder how many other people don't know what to do with evaporated milk. Or clotheslines. Or dishpans. Or...

What you don't know can be painful to your money situation. There may be more important things than how to use evaporated milk, but the more you know, the more you can save.

Do you know what's the best deductible for your automobile insurance?
Do you know how much filler is in your laundry detergent?
Do you know that your printer ink cartridge is not empty when your computer tells you it is?

Not knowing those things costs us money. What we don't know can hurt us.

Staying Home

You want a really good frugal tip? Stay home. Don't go shopping until/unless you really need to, and continually revamp what "really need to" means. It's best to plan on one day a week, or every other week and refuse to shop before then.

When I was growing up, we lived on a ranch 20 miles from town. Mom didn't drive and Daddy worked 7 days a week. We went to town once a month, when Daddy got paid. Toward the end of the month, we ate just as well as we did at the beginning (you thought I was going to say we ran out of everything!). The exception was that when we got home from our trip to town, we had sandwiches on "boughten" bread, with lunch meat.

It's true that we sometimes ran out of things, but we made do, or did without and it didn't make that much difference in how we lived.

Did you know that it isn't critical to have cheese on hand? And that you can wash dishes with laundry detergent if you need to? And... that you can make a meal from a handful of rice, a chicken leg and a bag of wild greens? Or whatever you have on hand.

Making do is just as much a frugal and sensible pursuit now as it was back then. The truth is that we're spoiled into thinking that we have to run to the store when we're out of two or maybe three items. If we're out of more than that, it's panic time.

But if we would calm down and admit that doing without commercial bread for three days won't send us to our graves (it may help keep us out of them), we wouldn't have to run to town every other day. It's true that the more often we're inside a store, the more we spend there. Staying home makes frugal common sense.